Just after Christmas, an 18-year-old will lead a crew of teens into the world’s deadliest boat race. Vicious squalls, choppy seas and injuries are the norm for Jessica Watson, the youngest person to sail solo around the world.
There are few streches as treacherous as the 630 nautical miles (724 land miles/1,165km) between Sydney and Hobart, Tasmania, that are raced every year on December 26. Gale-force storms known as ‘southerly busters’ hurtle across the Bass Strait, making the sea choppy and challenging. In 1998, six sailors lost their lives. Six years later, only 59 of the 116 starters completed the race.
“The competition is very close and very competitive,” says 18-year-old sailor Jessica Watson. “On top of the competition, the race is infamous for its challenging weather conditions. It’s going to be tough, and it could be dangerous, but we’re doing it because we want a challenge. We know what we’re taking on.”
Coming as they do from an 18-year-old skippering the youngest crew to compete in the 66-year-old race, those words might be mistaken for youthful hubris. Of course, Jessica Watson is no normal youth. On May 15, 2010, at the age of 16, she sailed into Sydney harbour after completing a solo circumnavigation of the globe, the youngest person to do so. Her feat was lauded by Australia’s then-Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and this year she was crowned Young Australian of the Year. Her 2010 book, True Spirit, was a bestseller and she’s spoken to crowds as large as 10,000.
So what qualifies her and her crew for a race as notoriously tough as this? “We might be young, but we’re very experienced,” says Watson. “On the crew are two solo round-the-world sailors, four Rolex Fastnet competitors [the European equivalent of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race], two sailors who crewed in the 2010 Sydney-Hobart and a multitude of smaller races – and that’s just in the past 12 months.”
Since the beginning of October, Watson and her crew of nine, who come from all over Australia and the UK, and have an average age of 19, have been working on team building and leadership, problem solving, emergency planning, media and brand management training. They have also spent more than 300 hours at sea.
The crew first set sail in the relatively calm conditions around Pittwater on Australia’s east coast, honing their sailing, manoeuvring, boat speed and offshore skills in their boat, a maxi yacht [100ft] christened Ella Baché – Another Challenge. Off-shore sessions geared to prepare them for the shifting wind and weather conditions followed that. In November, they sailed from Sydney to Hobart and back, and spent a week sailing in the Storm Bay and Derwent areas, where, as the crew’s coach, Jonno Bannister, explains, “the race can be won or lost”.
Read the full story in December's issue of The Red Bulletin.
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